Interesting fact number 1
Annually 1,300,000,000 passengers use railway transport in Russia. That is, every resident of Russia uses the train 9 times a year. However, this figure is far from the limit. In the USSR, there were 15 train journeys for each person.
Interesting fact number 2
The longest railway is the Trans-Siberian Railway, which has a length of about 9,300 kilometers.
Interesting fact number 3
The middle station of the Transsib is called “Half”. From it to Moscow and to Vladivostok the same distance.
Interesting fact number 4
The first railway was opened between St. Petersburg and Moscow, and the first three days of transportation were carried out free of charge. Simply no one wanted to ride such an unknown thing as a train.
Interesting fact number 5
If you want to work at Russian Railways, enter the railway institute in Krasnoyarsk.
Interesting fact number 6
In France, kissing is prohibited at train stations, as this often caused train delays. The law has been in effect for 100 years, and no one has canceled it to this day.
Interesting fact number 7
Railroad It is known that trackmen who check the serviceability of train wheels have a keen ear for music. After all, they have to identify wheel defects by changing the tone of the knock.
Interesting fact number 8
On one of the trains that travels in western Peru, conductors provide oxygen cushions to their passengers. The fact is that the train travels on the highest railway in the world, which is located at an altitude of about three kilometers.
Interesting fact number 9
Once, in the United States, in Ohio, a train collided with a steamer. Lake Ohio overflowed its shores at that moment, and the railway sank into a meter-long water column. The machinist, however, still decided to drive across the river, well, his path was blocked by a steamer.
Interesting fact number 10
In Bavaria, in 1910, an order was issued on behalf of the local authorities, which forbade the drinking of beer for train drivers and stokers during stops.
Interesting fact number 11
In Argentina, you can take a ride on the famous “Patagonia - Express” train, which survived the robbery of the century. Tourists who decide to ride this train will not only be able to enjoy the scenery outside the window, but also involuntarily take part in a planned performance that imitates a real train robbery.
Interesting fact number 12
In Argentina, you can now take a tour on the legendary Patagonia Express train, which has been restored especially for tourists. In addition to impressing the surrounding landscapes, passengers can, without their consent, become participants in the carefully planned "Train Robbery" action.
Interesting fact number 13
For several years there was a railway route “Paris-Venice”, where a special “Train of Love” ran. A special service was organized in the compartment of such a train. The passengers had at their disposal a TV set, a shower cubicle, and a special sleeping bunk for two persons.
Interesting fact number 14
Once in Switzerland, they organized a train tour, where all the high society of Swiss society was located: officials, honorary citizens, politicians, etc. For this occasion, the entire train was made up of restaurant cars. However, the organizers of this celebration did not take into account the fact that there is no toilet in the restaurant cars in Switzerland. As a result, when the train reached its destination, passengers jumped out of the carriages, surprising all the citizens who had gathered to meet the guests of honor.
Land transport.
Railway transport - a type of transport that transports goods along rail tracks in wagons (trains) using locomotive traction. Railway track - a complex of structures and devices that form a road with a guide rail track for the movement of rolling stock of railway transport. The main elements of the railway track: superstructure, subgrade, engineering structures (bridges, tunnels ...).
Rail transport is an inland type of transport. Serving transportation in the states of any region, it acquires the importance of an international mode of transport. Railways do not always form a single system due to the varying track gauges. In the Russian Federation, the track corresponds to the West European, but wider than the East European.
Advantages railway transport: high throughput and carrying capacity; reliability of work due to independence from climatic conditions (exception - breakage of electrical wires in case of natural disasters); the possibility of constructing communication lines on any land and water area in the presence of ferries; direct communication with industrial and agricultural enterprises of any sectors of the economy (individual sectors have their own access roads to access the backbone network); mass traffic combined with low cost and a fairly high delivery speed; shorter route in comparison with natural waterways.
disadvantages railway transport: "binding" to the track; high initial cost of fixed assets (a carriage is more expensive than a car, but cheaper than an aircraft or sea vessel); high metal consumption, labor intensity, low labor productivity.
The technology of railway transport is complex. This is due to the binding to the railway track. The basis of the technology of work is the theory of timetables (timetable); plan for the formation of trains in the directions of movement; an agreed plan for the formation of trains on the main line with the work schedule of the access roads of enterprises that have a connection with the main railway network.
How railways work:
1. another train cannot enter a busy section (to increase the carrying capacity, the sections are split into sections);
2. the movement is carried out only by trains (passenger, freight, postal, mixed), which are re-formed along the route of movement;
3. the goods are transported between the marshalling yards where trains are re-formed;
4. management of the transport process is carried out through the dispatch center;
5. the steam locomotive crew is changed after 100 - 120 km (water intake is required after 600 - 800 km); modern traction allows changing the brigade after 200 - 300 km, and the locomotive - after 1000 km;
6. transportation takes place with different track gauges;
7. dispatch of goods - by wagon, in small batches, train or block trains (typical for the carriage of bulk cargo).
The rolling stock of railway transport includes: locomotives (freight, shunting, electric trains for suburban traffic and subway) and wagons (freight, passenger, special, specialized in the type of cargo).
The emergence and development of railway transport refers to the first half of the 19th century. and is associated with the rapid growth of the capitalist mode of production. The birthplace of this type of transport is Great Britain.
The first public railway in Russia with a length of only 26 km St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo - Pavlovsk was put into operation in 1837 and had a purely demonstration value. Three years earlier, the factory railway began to operate in Nizhny Tagil. Russia was late in organizing railway communication in comparison with the developed countries of that time by 10 - 12 years.
The full-scale beginning of the formation of the national railway network dates back to 1851. Then the two-track railway line St. Petersburg - Moscow was put into operation. Later, the construction of highways in radial directions from Moscow (to Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov) began. And also from grain regions to the sea export ports of the Baltic and Black Seas. Railway construction in Russia acquired a particularly large scale in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. In the pre-revolutionary period, the main "backbone" of the country's modern railway network was formed. By this time, the Trans-Siberian Railway (Moscow - Vladivostok) and railways connecting Moscow with the Caucasus and Central Asia were functioning throughout its entire length. The St. Petersburg - Warsaw - Berlin highway connected the capital of Russia with the railway network of Western Europe. The highways to Odessa and Murmansk gave St. Petersburg access to the Black and Barents Seas.
During the Soviet period, the main focus was not on the construction of new railways, but on the reconstruction and increase in the capacity of the busiest existing highways. This approach was entirely justified. The concentration of the main cargo and passenger traffic on relatively few highways made it possible to carry out a corresponding concentration of capital investments in their reconstruction and technical re-equipment. The result is a significant reduction in unit costs for the transportation of goods and passengers.
By the end of the 80s. the railways of the Soviet Union were the busiest in the world. They accounted for about half of the world's rail freight turnover. Moreover, the most intensive train traffic was characteristic of Russian roads. The busiest highway in the world, the Transsib, is located in our country. The maximum cargo traffic on it is confined to the Novosibirsk - Omsk section, where more than 130 million tons of cargo were transported in both directions in the pre-crisis 1990.
The high traffic intensity on the Russian railways made it possible to carry out such expensive and capital-intensive types of reconstruction, such as the transfer of railway transport to electric traction.
New railways were built mainly in the newly developed regions of Siberia, the Far East and the European North. To unload the Transsib, its "backup" lines were built - the South Siberian Railway (Abakan - Novokuznetsk - Barnaul - Pavlodar - Tselinograd - Magnitogorsk) and Central Siberian (Kamen-na-Obi - Kokchetav - Kustanai - Chelyabinsk). A significant part of these roads are in Kazakhstan. Therefore, today they are of interstate importance. Along with internal Russian ties, they play an important role in the international territorial division of labor between Russia and Kazakhstan. Railways were also built to develop the fuel and energy resources of the European (Vorkuta - Konosha) and West Siberian North (Tyumen - Surgut - Urengoy). The most significant road on the territory of Eastern Siberia and the Far East is also the northern "backup" of the Transsib - the Baikal-Amur Mainline (Taishet - Ust-Kut - Severobaikalsk - Tynda - Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan). The Small BAM - the BAM - Tynda - Berkakit highway was built. This route gave an exit to the Yuzhno-Yakutsk TPK to the Transsib. In the future, it was planned to extend the Small BAM to Yakutsk and further through Susuman to Magadan in order to ensure the third railway exit of Russia to the Pacific Ocean. There are projects to connect the “island” railway Dudinka - Norilsk - Talnakh with the main railway network of Russia by extending the Tyumen - Surgut - Urengoy mainline to Dudinka with a bridge over the Yenisei. However, the implementation of all these projects requires large investments.
To characterize the operation of railway transport at the present stage of development, not quantitative, but qualitative indicators, in particular, electrification, are becoming increasingly important. In terms of the length of electrified railways, Russia occupies the first place in the world (75.3 thousand km), followed by Germany, France, Italy, India and China. In terms of the length of railways, Russia occupies the 2nd place - 124 thousand km. However, in terms of network density, our country is in one of the last places. The railway network is especially rare in Siberia, the Far East and the European North. Although today Russia still holds the leading position in terms of the overall freight turnover of railroad transport, both the railroad network and vehicles are largely physically worn out and require immediate renewal.
This state of the railway transport and railways is the result of a systematic reduction in capital investments in the industry, as well as a practical cessation of the supply of rolling stock and various equipment from the former Soviet republics and countries of people's democracies. Russia, with its vast expanses and large volumes of bulk cargo transportation over long distances, urgently needs a well-developed railway transport (high-speed highways with high traffic capacity and modern rolling stock).
The Government of the Russian Federation adopted a decree on the establishment of JSC "Russian Railways", the largest transport company, which started economic activity on October 1, 2003. Today, the reform of railway transport is recognized as one of the most successfully developing reforms in the economic sphere. As a result of the implementation of the program for the structural reform of railway transport, a breakthrough was provided in the field of passenger transportation - passenger turnover increased. Already in the first year of operation of the company, the quality of cargo transportation was improved: the speed of delivery of goods increased by 6%, the share of shipments of goods delivered on time exceeded 90%.
The transportation of goods by railways in Russia has always been dominated by such bulk goods as timber and timber, agricultural goods and, to a large extent, grain and coal. Later - oil and oil products, raw materials, ferrous metal ores and metals, mineral construction materials. Manufacturing products accounted for a much smaller share. And today this picture has changed little. Nevertheless, a very positive trend has emerged over the past 2 - 3 decades - a gradual (extremely slow) increase in the share of manufacturing products in the total volume of freight turnover and a decrease in the share of other types of cargo.
Freight flows of fuel and raw materials from Siberia in the western direction (to the European part of Russia, to Ukraine, to Belarus, the Baltic states, as well as the countries of Eastern and Western Europe) prevail in the geography of cargo transportation. There is also a large flow of raw materials from the European North to the central and southern zone of Russia.
There is a project for an underwater tunnel connecting the Russian Federation with the United States, but so far it does not have a foundation.
In passenger traffic, the Trans-Siberian Railway in its European part, the Moscow-St. Petersburg road, as well as other radial routes diverging from Moscow are especially loaded.
Suburban passenger traffic is most developed in the vicinity of Moscow, St. Petersburg and other large cities of Russia.
The seven largest cities in Russia - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Kazan and Novosibirsk - have a subway. Metro construction is also underway in Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Krasnoyarsk and Ufa. In Volgograd, there is a metro tram - a system of underground high-speed trams. Metrotram, despite the tram rolling stock, is actually considered a subway. The total length of Russian metro lines is about 453.0 km, 280 stations operate on them. Subways carry over 4.2 billion passengers annually. This is almost twice the passenger traffic of the entire Russian railway network. Russia ranks third among countries in the world in terms of the number of cities with operating subways and fourth in terms of the total length of the network. The leading place among Russian subways is taken by the Moscow one.
In 1992, the construction of the first in Russia super-high-speed railway line Moscow - St. Petersburg began. Thus, the first in Russia high-speed railway passenger line - VSZhM-1 - passenger line Moscow - St. Petersburg for the circulation of specialized high-speed trains.
From 18.12.09 the regular movement of the Sapsan train between Moscow and St. Petersburg began according to the schedule. The original travel time between the two capitals was 3 hours 45 minutes. In the future, it was planned to reduce travel time. However, on the contrary, it was increased, and now it varies from 3 hours 55 minutes to 4 hours 45 minutes.
The high-speed train "Sapsan" (Velaro RUS) is a joint project of Russian Railways and Siemens. The first train in Russia is formed of 10 cars. On the way, it develops a speed of up to 250 km / h. At the same time, on tests, it accelerated to 281 km / h. Sapsan cars have a two-class layout - tourist and business class. A number of problems in the operation of a train arise from the fact that high-speed traffic is organized along the same railway lines with conventional trains. In this regard, a decision was made to build Russia's first specialized high-speed railway line Moscow - St. Petersburg. On the new track, trains will be able to run at speeds of up to 400 km / h. Completion of construction is scheduled for 2017. Russian Railways also plans to issue a through ticket for passengers of Sapsan (Moscow - St. Petersburg) and Allegro (St. Petersburg - Helsinki) - travel on both trains will be carried out with one ticket.
The second HSRM of Russia - Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod. Travel time along the route is 3 hours 55 minutes, with a maximum speed of 160 km / h. On the way, the train makes two-minute stops in Vladimir, as well as in Dzerzhinsk. The first flight was made on July 30, 2010. Traffic intensity is two pairs per day - one pair goes from St. Petersburg to Nizhny Novgorod and back through the Kurskiy railway station in Moscow. Since September 6, 2010, the second pair travels from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod from the Kursk railway station and back. The total travel time is 7 hours 55 minutes from St. Petersburg to Nizhny Novgorod and 3 hours 55 minutes from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod.
Currently, there are projects for the construction of new railway lines, where Sapsan trains will be operated: 1) Moscow - Kazan line; 2) the line Moscow - Yaroslavl.
Glorious autumn! Healthy, vigorousThe air invigorates tired strength;
Ice is not strong on the cold river
Like melting sugar lies;
Near the forest, as in a soft bed,
You can sleep - peace and space!
The leaves have not yet had time to fade,
Are yellow and fresh like a carpet.
Glorious autumn! Frosty nights
Clear, quiet days ...
There is no disgrace in nature! And kochi,
And moss swamps, and stumps -
All is well under the moonlight
I recognize my native Russia everywhere ...
I fly fast on cast-iron rails,
I think my thought ...
II
“Good dad! Why in charmKeep a smart Vanya?
Let me be with the moonlight
Show him the truth.
This work, Vanya, was terribly huge, -
Not on the shoulder alone!
There is a king in the world: this king is merciless,
Hunger is his name.
He leads the armies; at sea by ships
Rules; drives people into the artel,
Walks behind the plow, stands behind
Stonecutters, weavers.
It was he who drove the masses of the people here.
Many are in a terrible struggle
Calling these barren wilds to life,
They found their coffin here.
Straight path: narrow embankments,
Posts, rails, bridges.
And on the sides, all the bones are Russian ...
How many there are! Vanya, do you know?
Chu! menacing exclamations were heard!
Stomp and gnashing of teeth;
A shadow ran across the frosty glass ...
What is there? Dead crowd!
They overtake the cast-iron road,
They run by the sides.
Do you hear the singing? .. „On this moonlit night
Love us to see our work!
We struggled in the heat, in the cold,
With your back always bent
We lived in dugouts, fought hunger,
Frozen and wet, sick with scurvy.
We were robbed by literate foremen,
The bosses whipped, the need pressed ...
We have endured everything, God's warriors,
Peaceful children of labor!
Brothers! You are reaping our fruits!
We are destined to rot in the ground ...
Do you remember all of us, the poor
Or forgotten for a long time? .. "
Do not be terrified by their wild singing!
From Volkhov, from mother Volga, from Oka,
From different ends of the great state -
These are all your brothers - men!
It's a shame to be shy, to be covered with a glove.
You’re not small! .. Rus hair,
You see, standing, emaciated with fever,
Tall, sick Belarusian:
Bloodless lips, drooping eyelids,
Ulcers on skinny arms
Forever knee-deep in water
The legs are swollen; tangled hair;
I will wash my chest, which is diligently on the spade
I spent the whole century day after day ...
You take a closer look at him, Vanya, carefully:
It was difficult for a man to get his bread!
Didn't straighten my hunchbacked back
He is still: stupidly silent
And mechanically with a rusty shovel
Hollow ground hollows!
This noble work habit
It would not be bad for us to adopt ...
Bless the work of the people
And learn to respect the man.
Don't be shy about your dear homeland ...
Endured enough Russian people,
He took out this railroad too -
Will endure whatever the Lord sends!
Will endure everything - and wide, clear
He will make a way for himself with his chest.
It's a pity - to live in this beautiful time
You won't have to - neither me, nor you. "
III
The whistle is deafening this minuteScreamed - the crowd of the dead disappeared!
“I saw, father, I am an amazing dream, -
Vanya said, - five thousand men,
Russian tribes and breeds representatives
Suddenly appeared - and it he told me:
"Here they are - the builders of our road! .." "
The general burst out laughing!
- I was recently in the groans of the Vatican,
I wandered around the Colosseum for two nights,
I saw Saint Stephen in Vienna,
What ... did the people create all this?
Excuse me for this impudent laugh,
Your logic is a little wild.
Or Apollo Belvedere for you
Worse than a stove pot?
Here are your people - these terms and baths,
A miracle of art - he pulled everything apart! -
"I'm not talking for you, but for Vanya ..."
But the general did not give an objection:
- Your Slav, Anglo-Saxon and Germanic
Do not create - destroy the master,
Barbarians! a wild bunch of drunks! ..
However, it's time to take care of Vanyusha;
You know, a spectacle of death, sorrow
It is a sin to resent a child's heart.
Would you show the child now
The bright side ... -
IV
“Glad to show!Listen, my dear: fatal works
It's over - the German is already laying the rails.
The dead are buried in the ground; sick
Hidden in dugouts; working people
Gathered in a close crowd at the office ...
They scratched their heads tightly:
Every contractor should stay,
Walking days have become a penny!
The foremen entered everything in the book -
Did he take to the bathhouse, did the patient lie:
“Maybe there is now a surplus here,
Come on! .. “They waved their hand ...
In a blue caftan - a venerable meadowsweet,
Thick, squishy, \u200b\u200bred as copper,
The contractor rides along the line on a holiday,
He goes to see his work.
Idle people make way decorously ...
Sweat wipes the merchant from the face
And he says, akimbo:
“Okay ... no matter ... well done! .. well done! ..
With God, now go home - congratulations!
(Hats off - if I say!)
I expose a barrel of wine to the workers
And - i give arrears! ..“
Someone "hurray" shouted. Picked up
Louder, friendlier, longer ... Look:
The foremen rolled the barrel with the song ...
Here even the lazy one could not resist!
The people unharnessed their horses - and the merchant
With a shout of "hurray!" Rushed along the road ...
Seems hard to see the picture
Draw, General? .. "
Such a familiar thing for us is the railway! One of the most reliable and affordable and favorite modes of transport. Bought a train ticket, came to the station. Now no one remembers that when the railway between St. Petersburg and Moscow was opened, travel in the first three days was made free precisely because everyone was afraid of this "terrible thing."
On average, each of us becomes a railway passenger 9 times a year. The average number of Russian Railways passengers per year is 1 billion 300 million.
The most remarkable railway is the Trans-Siberian Railway. It is the longest in the world. From Moscow to Nakhodka - 9438 km and 97 large stations. The branded train "Russia" runs on this route, which takes 8 days, 4 hours and 25 minutes.
The very middle of the Transsib is called Polovina station. It is the same distance from both Moscow and Vladivostok.
The coldest section of the Transsib is located between Mogocha and Skovorodino stations. The temperature here reaches -62 degrees. Although geographically, this is not the northernmost point of the highway.
And the highest point, where the Transsib rails are laid, lies at an altitude of 1040 m, between the stations of Turgutui and Yablonovaya. It is 6110 km, Yablonovy Pass.
The longest freight train was 6.5 km long, consisted of 440 wagons and regularly transported 42,000 tons of coal from Ekibastuz to the Urals during the Soviet era. On the other side of the world, in South Africa, in 1989 another record was recorded: a 7.3 km train, consisting of 660 cars. True, the experiment was not repeated again. The track could not stand it.
The first railway in Russia was a freight railway, 2 km long. It was built in the Urals, at the Kolyvanovsky plant and it worked on horse-drawn. The first passenger road was Tsarskoselskaya.
The speed of the first passenger trains in the 19th century was 33 km / h. And the railway workers at that time were a kind of elite: they were treated, as, for example, at the beginning of the 20th century to aviators, or in the 60s to astronauts. Modern trains can reach up to 580 km / h.
The requirements for hiring trackmen have not changed during this time: they must have a good ear for music, since they determine the malfunction of the wheel by changing the tone when it is tapped.
According to statistics, a railway is 45 times safer than a car. For those who are still worried, experts advise to choose carriages in the middle of the train, and in seated carriages - to buy a train ticket for rear-facing seats.
Thrill-seekers are invited to Argentina. The legendary Patagonia Express train, specially restored for tourists, runs there. In addition to the vivid impressions of the local landscapes, you can unexpectedly find yourself participating in an action called "Train Robbery" :)
There are many surprises in South America. For example, German engineers who surveyed the Isthmus of Panama for the construction of the Trans-American Railway Line said that it was not profitable to make rails from local iron. Gold is a more affordable metal here ...
Railways in Russia carry 1.3 billion passengers every year. On average, each of us is a passenger of the train 9 times a year, but this is a very small figure. In Soviet times, this figure reached 15 times a year.
The Trans-Siberian Railway is considered the longest in the world. Its length is almost 9.300 kilometers.
Station "Half" is the very middle of the Transsib. The distance from this station is the same both to Moscow and to Vladivostok.
After the opening of the first railroad in Russia (between Moscow and St. Petersburg), the first three days the journey was free. Because nobody wanted to ride this "terrible thing".
France still has a law that prohibits kissing at train stations. The reason for the ban was delays in the departure of trains. The law was issued 100 years ago and has not yet been canceled.
It turns out that linemen who tap the wheels of trains have a perfect ear for music. By the change in tone, they should determine a wheel malfunction.
On the train, which runs in western Peru, conductors offer passengers an oxygen bag. Because the train runs on the highest railway in the world (at an altitude of over 3 kilometers).
Once on a railroad in Ohio (USA), a train collided with a steamer. The fact is that Lake Ohio overflowed its shores, and the railway track was under a meter layer of water. Nevertheless, the driver decided to drive the train along the flooded track, but collided with a steamer.
The head of the Bavarian railways in 1910 was forced to issue an order prohibiting machinists and stokers from buying beer during stops at stations.
In Argentina, you can now take a tour on the legendary Patagonia Express train, which has been restored especially for tourists. In addition to impressing the surrounding landscapes, passengers can, without their consent, become participants in the carefully planned "Train Robbery" action.
Several years ago, a special "train of love" began to run between Paris and Venice. In the compartment of such a train: VIP service, there is a TV set, a shower cabin and a special double shelf.
Once on a tour of Switzerland, a train departed, on which the cream of Swiss society rode: ministers, deputies, honorary citizens, etc. On the occasion of the celebration, the train was made up of some restaurant cars. But the organizers did not take into account a small nuance: there is no toilet in the Swiss restaurant cars. Therefore, when the train approached the station, the locals who had gathered to meet it were very surprised: the honored guests poured out of the carriage doors like peas.
As you know, some trains have their own names. For example, "Red Arrow", "Russia", "Baikal", etc. Often the names of the trains are given by the passengers themselves: for example, the train "Rostov - Odessa", the passengers affectionately call "Papa - Mama"
The Japanese firm Toshiba has built a magnetic levitation train. The train is capable of speeds of 517 km / h.
On one occasion, a group of German engineers surveyed the Isthmus of Panama in order to build the Trans-American Railway. And in the end, I made a decision that the rails here are better made not from the rare iron in these places, but ... from gold.
Carriages of the third class on the first Russian railways followed at the front of the train and were equipped with rigid benches. But passengers more often rode under the benches. Because these cars had no roof, and passengers were hiding from the weather and sparks.
In Australia, on a desert plain, a railway was laid, which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. It is famous for the fact that for 500 km there is not a single turn on it.
Among the Faberge collection there is an egg "Trans-Siberian Railway", which contains a clockwork model of the imperial Trans-Siberian train made of gold and platinum.
In the near future, double-deck passenger cars may appear in Russia. Such cars will be much more economical for the railroad and much more comfortable for passengers. Each compartment of such a carriage has a shower, toilet and air conditioning.
In Monte Carlo, you can see people who meet trains in anticipation of those who have arrived in the principality for the first time. After that, the passengers are offered money to play, promising a share of the winnings for this. It's all the fault of the omen that newbies are lucky.
But at Shibuya station in Japan there is a monument to a dog with a "station-master's cap" on his head. The dog received this honor for its feat, for 10 years it met the owner, who left by train.
When the first section of the railway was built in England between Liverpool and Manchester, they decided to arrange a kind of competition between five steam locomotives. However, just before the start of the competition, the fifth car was suspended from participation in them "due to an outdated engine." There were ordinary horses hidden under the steel sheathing.
The longest freight train in the world ran in the Soviet Union on the Ekibastuz - Ural route. The 6.5-kilometer train carried 42,000 tons of coal in 440 wagons.
In the early 90s. such a scam was known: the African was promised emigration to Europe, they took the agreed amount, brought it to Moscow (then it was simple and cheap). And then this African was put on a train, assured that it was a train to Germany. But in fact, it was a subway train that moved along a circular route. The poor fellow could go for a very long time.
The driver of the Ahvaz-Tehran train once deserved a severe punishment. His fault was that he did not stop the train during namaz (prayer). Because of this, passengers were forced to pray in the compartment, moreover, at every turn of the train, they had to turn in place.
Experts advise, for safety reasons, to give preference to central cars when buying tickets. In the event of an accident, they suffer less than the head or tail. Also, it is better to choose seats against the movement of the train. By the way, according to statistics, trains are 45 times safer than cars.
The maximum speed on the rail track is fixed at 9851 km / h! It was this speed that a rocket-powered platform developed in the state of New Mexico (USA) during an experiment.